b"The place you were before as the family assistant was Thomas Jefferson. So, you must have had some ideaabout the school?Yes. Thomas Jefferson had one of the highest incident reports for violence and fights and all kind of stuff.I wentthere. I knew people there. I knew mostly what was going on. To me, it wasn't a tough school, it's just that you had to dealwith it. It worked out great for me.I did nine years at that school, it was tough. That first year, I did approximately twelve arrests.These kids do thingswithout thinking about what they are doing. They rob the teacher, they beat up the teacher, they do this, they do that.You're just implementing the law. You take them to the precinct, process them, then they start crying. When they go tothe precinct, they release them because they are minors. Their parents come down. I worked there two years and theymade me a group leader. I was promoted to School Safety Sergeant. I worked my way up.I started designating jobs, designating things everybody had to do. The most important thing is getting along with your crew or getting along withstaff, getting along with your precinct. I stayed there nine years, there was a lot of chaos. I was able to deal with that justbecause I hadworked different jobs before school safety, in a private company. You work in a private company, it's muchdifferent from when you work in a city. Everybody is laid back in city jobs. Most of the people are in already and you cantjust get rid of them. In a private company, you have to be on your toes, you have to do what you have to do. So that wasvery helpful to me. I did it to the best of my knowledge. If I made a mistake, I'm going to let you know. Then they sent meto Sterling High School.Is that in Brooklyn as well?It's in Brooklyn. It is a school for special ed kids and they needed an officer there that had experience to deal withspecial needs kids. These kids came out of prison back into society. It isan isolated place where they can learn trades,take barbering courses, cooking courses, mechanical courses. Some of them don't graduate, but they complete four yearsat high school. It was a trade school.It was a challenge. I arrived to report for work and four hours later, Im still waiting because I had to have an inter-view with the principal. Ive been working nine years and I need an interview? She says: The reason why we are havingthis interview is because this is a special ed type of setting and we need a special person to deal with these people.I asked about weapons and she said, These kids are street kids, they come in here, they come in from prison. They gottheir shank and their knife. I said: Well, I don't work like that. The rules and regulations say no weapon is no weapons. I think you're going to have to get another officer. She says: Well, I like you. Maybe we can compromise. I said: Okay,when they bring weapons, they put it in a drawer and they stay there and when they're leaving in the evening, they cantake their weapon. So, we came to an agreement. But I didn't fit in the way she wanted. She kept me anyway for abouttwo years. Then, she had another agent come in to work there. They can't have two sergeants in the same building, so they sent me to a junior high school, P.S. 291 in Bushwick. Junior high is tough. You have to mold the kids. They challenge you. I had to learn how to relate to these younger kids. I stayed seven years. My principal passed away and wegot a lot of assistant principals. Kids would bring items I called weapons, box cutters, things that could hurt someone.When I brought it to the principal, he would say: Oh no, that's not a weapon. It's just a box cutter, it's just a scout knife,it's just this. I wrote up my report and I made sure it said: The principal said this is nothing. They would get a principalsuspension not a regular suspension that was for five days. It was a slap on the wrist.143 "